A book is a dream that you hold in your hand. – Neil Gaiman

Each of us has a different relationship with reading. For some, it conjures a romantic past of cuddling up in your bed listening to mom or dad narrate your favourite story. Others, it is trudging through english class staples likeSilas Marnerand To Kill a Mockingbird(which are fantastic reads).

One thing I have come to realize more and more is this: readers are leaders.

In high school and university, reading was a chore for me. A necessary evil to get to the desired grade and desired outcome (my degree). I had lost touch with the great stories of my childhood and hadn’t read a book for “fun” in years.

Then, things changed. I read a book and my world opened the door to the thoughts and ideas that had been waiting outside knocking to be let in for so long.

Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light.

–Vera Nazarian

I had found my tribe. Entrepreneurs, philosophers, leaders and poets. Once I found my tribe, groups of people who thought like I did and were experts at what interested me, reading became the way.

Are you stuck in a rut? Have you found your tribe? What are your true interests? For me, the answer to my questions was to read. To open my world to the great ideas and thoughts of those who came before me.

If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.

–Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thanks so much for stopping by, if you are wondering what books got me started on my journey to success and mindfulness I have shared a few of them below.